Offered bigger house but should we take it????

eliviajen

Hello
We have been offered a new house to rent....!!! WE currently live in a decent sized council 2 bed ground floor flat. We have 2 children a 19m boy, and a 6yr old girl - our council's policy is age 10 before we can apply for a larger property. This is central to town.

The place we have been offered is a huge 4 bed farmhouse cottage.... it is only £55 a month more than what we currently pay, but is a higher council tax band and i think its about £500 more for the year. It has big kitchen, dinning room and 2 reception rooms.

The down sides are it is on its own, about 20minute walk into town downhill - i dont currently drive, but we do bike alot - the other half drives tho. it is oil central heating - and i dont have a clue how that works.... I think you have to order a tank at a time so would prob be £400? in one go. It's prob not as social for the children in the future as there friends prob wouldnt come up and call on them

The positives are the extra space, a huge enclosed garden (we share ours with 3 other flats), a better address!!! not having to wait another 4 years to move, no horrid damp problem

At the moment our childminder just lives across the road, and i'm 5 minutes away from school.

The house has been offerered as the OH's grandparents used to live there previous to the now leaving tenants, and D has always been on hand to help out by cutting grass, fixing dry stone walls, and we care for the ajoining allotment.

We'd be able to find the extra money to pay for it, but finding a deposit (if one was needed) would be difficult

What would you do????

princeofpounds

Is this also a council house? If not, that brings up a whole new set of considerations as council tenancies are very cushy.

20 minutes walk is not a big deal in my opinion. It's some way for young children, but very manageable for anyone else, especially on a bike. I would look to see if there is a bus nearby.

It might seem less social but I see no reason why friends would not call over. It might not be spontaneous but it is not far at all. Plus at the age your children are they most likely haven't even made any lifelong friends yet and there is no reason they can't find new friends in the new area.

Plus having green space and no damp is a big deal for child development as well as having mates over, in my opinion.

You seem to have got very used to the mindset of having everything on your doorstep, bear in mind that most people don't live that way but be self-aware about it in making decisions. I would almost be tempted to call 'silly' for having limited horizons; a 20 minute walk is hardly commuterland, let alone a new town, but I do understand how easy it is to get used to such things.

Oil can be much more expensive than gas central heating, so be aware of this. It is usually somewhere between the cost of gas and electricity, but it depends a lot on the type of property. The difference is particularly pronounced at the moment as gas is unusually cheap and oil unusually expensive (that's a topic for another thread).

Personally, I would move. But then I would have the financial resources to deal with the additional costs and I have no clue whether you do.

mazy_m

I'd take the house as i'd imagine things would work themselves out as and when needed. If it's a case of affordability and you'd struggle and you were happy where you are then i'd say no but you've said that you would have to wait 4 years until your little girl was 10 so it seems like you want to move out of it. I'd be jumping at the chance for the garden alone...but then I do like a big garden!

Ultimately it's your decision so you need to think will the issue of where it is be too much of a burden and you also need to find out if you will need a deposit (although as your OH is known to them and is reliable in their eyes I would imagine as they've not mentioned it there might not be one or a huge one at that?)

What do you feel is right for you and your family?

Maz

ognum

This really depends on your mindset none of us here can be in your shoes.

Pros
more space
Bedroom for each child
Large garden
More rural
Don't need to move again
can make a home
children can roam free in large space

Cons
20 min walk to town
Cramped space
no garden
Walk to childminder
Need to move sometime
More isolated

If it was me I would move, sounds like a better place to bring up your children. A healthier lifestyle, room to run, walk to school, fresh veg.

Now you say why you don't want to ?

franklee

The type of tenancy matters. If you are thinking of moving to a private let on an assured shorthold tenancy then you can wave goodbye to security of tenure. What type of tenancy to you have now? If you have security in a council property then I'd not give that up without really knowing what you're about.

Kynthia

Don't move from one place you're not happy with to another. Be as sure as you can that you will be happy there. The saying 'location location location' came about for a reason so if you don't think you'll be happy with the location then you wont' be able to change that once you're there.

eliviajen

The new place isnt council so i wouldnt have the security. It is part of a Large estate so cannot be sold off seperately but i have no idea about what sort of tenancy it would be on. We didnt want to go to the estate agents and discuss it without be totally sure...

The new place is in the same small town, there is a bus service that runs in the summer months past every couple of hours (this isnt much different from the normal bus and train connections which run all year, although may seem extreme to some)

A point raised by OH last night was, that even if i did pass my driving test we would possibly struggle to run a second car.... especially if we were paying more out for the house and the possibly extra that we would hav to pay the childminder, he dropped off when he went into town for work 1/2hour earlier than i would do now

I do love the house, I would normally walk the children up to the allotment 3 or 4 times a week - but we would meet OH there and he would drive us home.

We have looked into a homeswapping, but its never came to anything (upstairs flat is private let and changes tenants every 3 months, it seems like a bit of a "doss" house and can sometimes appear rowdy...)

i need to find out more i guess...